Immigrant experience for little ones -- a bit confusing -- where was mummy in the beginning of the book? (I'm assuming Canada), and the sudden wedding is abrupt -- so in that sense, it reads as though one were a small child whose mother has gone away, come back for a sudden wedding and then transplanted you to Canada, which is of course quite jarring and odd at times. Still, a great tool for empathy for slightly older kids, but I'm not sure if younger children will be able to follow it.

Makes more sense as a sequel, now even more context for families traveling across the globe. ( )

Malaika, the little Caribbean girl whose story began in author Nadia L. Hohn and illustrator Irene Luxbacher's Malaika's Costume, returns in this second picture-book. When her mother comes home from Canada, it is to announce her impending marriage to Mr. Frederic, and the fact that Malaika will be moving to Canada with them. Sad at being parted from her grandmother, our heroine struggles to find her footing in this cold, new place, where everyone speaks differently, where she must adjust to a new steps-sister, and where Carnival is nothing like it is at home. After an impulsively destructive act, done in anger, Malaika finds a way to put things right...

Like its predecessor, Malaika's Winter Carnival pairs a poignant story with appealing artwork. Also like its predecessor, the story here is told partly in standard North American English, and partly in Caribbean dialect, a choice which, while it will present a challenge for some young readers and listeners, also lends the narrative an authentic feeling. Nadia Hohn captures Malaika's sense of displacement, her dismay at the unfamiliarity of everything and everyone around her, but her resolution of the central crisis provides a hopeful, upbeat conclusion. Recommended to anyone who read and enjoyed the first book about Malaika, as well as to those looking for children's stories about the immigrant experience and/or the festival of Carnival. ( )